Beard daze

Back in November my wonderful husband, Geoff, decided to grow out his goatee into a full beard. At first it wasn't so bad, but I soon discovered that a full beard, though it grew soft later, isn't exactly as comfortable for kissing and cuddling as I'd thought! Not one to dictate how Geoff keeps his facial hair, however, I let it play out. Sure enough, about a month ago he decided to shave it!
I'm kicking myself for not taking a before picture of the beard! I know I have one somewhere, but I can't seem to find it right now, so we will have to make do with during and after!
Here are the photos of the progress. As you can see, we decided to be silly with it!

The Civil War mutton chops.

From the side!

The stache

And finally...

The end result! It's been over 3 years since I have seen his face completely clean! On Sunday, when he did it, I couldn't stop laughing every time I looked at him, despite the fact that this is the face I fell in love with!
So, we're going to give it a month and see where it goes from there! After all, it is just hair...it will grow again!

Show us your life guest room!

I typically don't take part in Kelly's Korner's Show us your Life, but I couldn't pass this one up! Our guest room is my favorite of all the rooms we have in the new house so I can't resist showing it off!!
Many regular readers have seen it, but I will post again.

Here is the room from the doorway, when you walk in. I have since added curtains, a different end table and a floor lamp, but my memory card is acting up so I couldn't take a picture of it. Also I'm lazy.

The bed is my husband's childhood bed, and next summer I'm going to take it apart and spray paint it white to match the rest of the room (the new bedside table is white). The bedding was from JC Penney on clearance! We also had a gift card so I ended up spending all of $15 on it! I was quite proud of myself.

This is the wall opposite the bed, the same wall the door is on. The lava lamp was a gift to Geoff from me one of the years we were dating, but it matched so well that I put it in here! The dresser is also Geoff's childhood dresser. It needs a little work (I have since replaced the drawer pulls because some of them were broken) but I haven't gotten to it yet. Eventually!

I found these curtains at Bed Bath and Beyond in the children's section! My mom suggested we hang a white sheer curtain under them, so there is now another curtain there. It looks really nice, so I will hopefully get around to showing you one of these days.

Even though we don't always live in the guest room, I absolutely love it. It was the room that took the longest to paint and work on, but it is totally worth it in the end, I think!

Check out more guest rooms at Kelly's blog!

I'm exhausted

We had several guests come through our new house over the course of the past two weeks. It was wonderful, but I have to admit, I'm happy to have my house back to myself again! Back to the routine of daily life!

Our first guest was my wonderful mom! I didn't take many pictures but it was a wonderful visit. We visited Ikea, because my mom had never been there, shopped for curtains (a post on that coming up!) relaxed, and visited Leavenworth, a cute tourist town with lots of fun shops. We had a great time, and I was sorry to see her go!

The day after my mom left, two of my friends from school in Alabama came to visit! Jessica and Lydia's visit was very different from my mom's visit but it was just as fun! We visited a local corn maze...

Pike Place Market (including the first Starbucks store and my favorite place to eat lunch, Market Grill)

Snoqualmie Falls, which are just 15 minutes down the road from our house (who knew?)

Sushi Land...twice...

And the aquarium!

On Friday I sent them into the city on their own (they did great!) and they rode the duck boats and visited the Space Needle.

Like I said, they were both awesome visits, but I'm happy to get back to my regularly scheduled programs...laundry, dishes, errands and, of course, job hunting.

Sisters

When I came home this afternoon, this is what I found.

Clarabelle and Hermione haven't always gotten along. When Clarabelle first arrived, Hermione was very upset with me, hissing and hiding all day. I felt terrible.

Clarabelle was so sick, she didn't care, at first. By the time Hermione came around, Clarabelle was feeling better.

They will occasionally groom each other; Clarabelle will more often groom Hermione than the other way around.

I have no idea whose idea this was, or who arrived first. My guess would be Hermione curled up with Clarabelle, but I will never know for sure.

Either way, I think it's safe to say that these sisters have bonded.

And that makes me feel all warm inside!

Storage solutions

Ahh, peace and quiet. It's something we haven't had much of in the past 3 months or so, since we decided we were going to buy a house. But (most of) the boxes are unpacked, the visitors are gone (for now!) and it's just Geoff and I. Well, tonight it's just me, but usually it's just Geoff and I!
Of course, all these little things, along with a kitty with raging conjunctivitis who is forced to wear the cone of shame, I've just not gotten around to blogging because, at the end of the day, I just want to relax!
Kind of like this:

Without the cone, of course. Poor thing, I'm not sure which is more irritating to her, the (presumably) itchy eye, or the collar that prevents her from doing pretty much everything and causes Hermione to hiss at her! Poor thing.

Anyway, I recently had two big boxes of stuff in my kitchen. Stuff we needed, but stuff we didn't have the room to store! See, we had an awesome island in the middle of the other kitchen, so our appliances and pots and pans just expanded to fill the space. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my new kitchen, but it has a little less storage, so it's taking a little getting used to. Those two boxes were stressing me out and I didn't know what to do with them!
Well, a little repurposing (read: stealing) of a cart from Geoff's office helped store our plastic storage containers!

I'm bound and determined to keep these in order this time around. Aren't we all?

That took care of our plastic storage, but not the few larger, awkward (and needed) appliances! I'm talking a blender, food processor and all it's attachments, for example. This time it was Craigslist to the rescue!

This microwave cart is perfect for this corner of our kitchen. It's in great shape and was only $40. I may later replace the hardware with something a little more to my taste, but for now I'm not worried. Although, you may notice that there is no microwave on said microwave cart. We're working on it!
In case you were wondering, living without a microwave is...interesting. It makes reheating take a little longer, but if you have some patience, mashed potatoes reheated on the stove...

or chicken heated in the stove really isn't that bad!

One of the things I love about most about my kitchen is the sink! We went from having a double sink to having just one, and I have to say, it's helped me keep the kitchen much cleaner. When the sink fills up, it's time to load the dishwasher, and most of the stuff fits into the dishwasher in one load!

This was before dinner, so it's not as clean at the moment. But the dishwasher is running, and it was clean for a bit, which made me happy!

Summer

When I was a kid we had a park within walking distance from my house where, throughout the summer there would periodically be concerts, magicians and other fun things for families. The summer before I entered 6th grade my mom worked nights and I was left home with my sister for a couple hours in the afternoon before my dad came home. Often, we would walk down to Memorial Park and see what was going on. To me, this was summer.

Last night Geoff and I got a little taste of summer. It was warm, but not too warm, and there was a nice breeze. We saw this street band performing (we actually know the guitarist wearing the hat) and stopped to listen.
I wasn't 10 anymore, but that was alright. It was summer, and I loved it.

We sat in plastic lawn chairs and listened to the blues, while a little girl listened to her daddy play. Kids danced, adults danced, and most people just sat back and enjoyed the music. That's what we did.

It was a small gig, and the band was paid a little money, but that wasn't the point. One of the things I liked the most about this little concert was how much every musician enjoyed playing. You could tell that it was a passion for them, and it made me enjoy the music all the more because they were.

Ahh, to be a little kid again...

Zucchini!

I have a confession. I had no idea what these plants were. I knew they were some kind of squash, and I knew what seeds I had planted, but I had no idea what type of plant this particular one was because, quite frankly, I just lost track when I planted.

But good news! I now know!

It looks like some time in the near future (I have no idea how fast these things grow) we will have a zucchini in our garden!

Since it's been so unusually wet and cloudy here our plants are a little stunted. All except the sugar snap peas, of course, which like wet weather. They're going crazy.

I'm just fascinated with the little vines that this plant puts out. They will grab onto just about anything, even each other! Teamwork at its finest.

Anyway, there is a reason that I'm posting yet ANOTHER garden update. First, because I am proud of our garden, but second because, to be perfectly honest, life has gotten away from me lately.

I've been babysitting more, which is nice (more hours are always welcome), decided I'm going to start selling Mary Kay while I continue to look for a job, volunteering at Purrfect Pals, a cat shelter out here, getting discouraged by the lack of jobs available (nevermind the rejection letters) and making huge, life-changing decisions.

For all these reasons, I've been quiet, and decided that some pictures of our quickly growing plants was necessary.

Don't you agree?

4th of July

The Fourth has never really been a big deal to me. I have always enjoyed cookouts, parades and, of course, fireworks, but it has never been something I look forward to every year. Last year I had to work on the Fourth, this year Geoff does. But that's OK.

Yesterday we went to a movie, and though today we will go to church and then head our separate ways for the day, it is OK with me since tomorrow will be a day for US! I guess we will celebrate the 5th of July instead.

This afternoon I will spend a couple hours volunteering at the local Petco, helping adopt out kitties. I work with an organization called Purrfect Pals, and since it's kitten season we have a lot of kittens who are spayed, given shots and ready for their new home! Today we have 7 where we normally have 4!! Most of them are kittens, however, so they will likely not last the weekend.

So what are you doing for this Fourth of July?
I leave you with a picture of what I found on the sidewalk yesterday, after the movie.

Photo editing

I've received several comments on how great the color is in my photos, how I make things POP and similar comments. I have to admit though, it's not exactly my photography skills that make this work.

Thought I would love to take credit for the bright colors in some of my pictures, I can't. I use Picasa, and I absolutely love it.

One of the reasons I love Picasa so much is because it's FREE! This is a huge plus in my non-professional, non-professional-aspiring photography book. Therefore I was thrilled to pieces when I saw on my Google Reader that one of my favorite blogs is doing a series on how to use Picasa! So go check it out! I know I will!

Rain, rain go away

It's been raining a lot lately...

...which has apparently made the sugar snap peas happy...

...and that, in turn, makes me happy!

Favorite toy

Why play with

those silly little toys

Mommy brings home

when there are twist-ties available??

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day...

This clock is special to me. I believe it was a wedding gift for my parents, but as long as I can remember it has hung in our kitchen. The loud ticking it makes is distinctive only to someone who has grown up listening to it, catching it when the room falls silent, or there is a lull in the conversation.

I remember one time when my grandmother was babysitting my sister and I. My sister, being younger, was already in bed, but my grandmother was painting my nails at the kitchen table. I was silent, watching her, when she suddenly stopped and asked what that noise was. I listened, and couldn't hear anything but the clock. When I told her that was all I could hear, she realized that was the unidentified noise, and that she had thought it was a bomb. Of course this freaked me out a little bit, but I realize now that it was just another sound to me, and now it's a sound of my childhood.

When my dad was growing up, his grandparents had a Chelsea Ship's Clock, similar to this one, that was his childhood clock. Later, it appeared in my grandparent's (his parent's) house, and though it was familiar to me, it wasn't our clock.
For my dad's birthday one year recently, my grandparent's gave him the Chelsea clock, and the wooden one became mine.

Now it hangs in my kitchen, ticking away in its ever familiar rhythm.

Memorial Day weekend and a bunch of pictures!

I must say, my blogging and internet break was very refreshing. Which is not to say that I am not very happy to have my computer back up and running!

It was a busy and fast long weekend for us, and though I enjoyed every minute with my family, I have to admit that I'm also glad to be home again. We had an open house down in Idaho for people who couldn't make it to the wedding, so we came home with bags loaded...both with presents and stuff from our parent's houses because they want it out!

I flew in on Wednesday, along with my mom. Thursday my dad and sister arrived (they were supposed to come on Wednesday too) so we spent most of the day going to the airport to get them and driving back...and taking our time. It was a long day! Friday we relaxed and then my husband arrived. Saturday the ladies got pedicures! My toes were sorely in need, because they still had my wedding nail polish on them!

After that we headed to Shoshone Falls, a waterfall where Geoff and had gone to four years ago for a mini-date (with friends!) That was at the beginning of our dating relationship.
This was us four years ago...we look so little!

And here we are in the same place (relatively speaking, not the same lookout) four years later...at the beginning of our marriage!

It is merely coincidence that he is wearing the same shirt!
After taking a few family pictures...

And a few pictures of the falls themselves...

(I really like this last one!)
...we headed for some shopping. Of course!

Sunday was our wedding open house. It was very pretty and fairly subdued, but exactly what we wanted. Most of the people who came were friends of Geoff's family, so I had a few introductions to work through, but it was nice to see friends of the family that I remembered from previous visits!

We were going to play nice, but then Geoff changed his mind...

So I reciprocated!

Like I said, the weekend was way too short, but it was so fun.